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LITHUANIA against POLAND 

AN APPEAL FOR JUSTICE 



v* ry 



Addressed to 

His Excellency tKe President of the United States 

to the Senators and Representatives of the United States Congress 

and to all American Citizens 



Executive Committee 
Lithuanian National Councils 



LITHUANIA against POLAND L 5 L 5^ 



AN APPEAL FOR JUSTICE 



^• ^* 



We, the American citizens of Lithuanian descent, wish to make known to the Government and 
People of the United States the wrongs which are being done to our kindred in Lithuania by the nu- 
merically stronger power of the government and army of Poland. 

We and our fathers came to America to escape from the tyranny of despotic Russia. We are 
grateful and proud to live in the United States and loyally support its government. But we would be 
unworthy of the privileges of American citizenship if we could forget our parents, our friends and our 
country beyond the ocean. 

American citizens believe in the principles of justice and fair play and humanity and protection 
for the weak against the strong. The new Polish Government in its dealings with Lithuania has 
violated these principles. 

As soon as the Poles became sure that they would receive independence, they chose to forget that 
they had been brothers in bondage with the Lithuanians and intensified their old systematic campaign 
for the subjugation of the Lithuanian people. 

While the Lithuanian army was successfully doing its best to drive out the forces of the Bol- 
sheviki, Polish troops suddenly came in from behind and seized and occupied many Lithuanian towns 
and villages and are now holding not only a vast territory indisputably Lithuanian, but are also in pos- 
session of the City of Vilna, the capital of Lithuania from ancient times. 

The Poles, in the course of this forcible and wrongful occupation, have robbed and killed thou- 
sands of people. 

The Poles have taken from Lithuanian soldiers their arms and uniforms and compelled them to 
join the ranks of the Polish ar^my. 

The Poles have killed or imprisoned those who resisted. 

The Poles have dismissed the employes of the Lithuanian government in the occupied dis- 
tricts and have put Poles in their places. 

The Poles have debased the Lithuanian churches and the Christian religion into a means of pro- 
paganda to compel Lithuanians to abandon their own nationality and become Polish. 

In these wrongful acts have participated the soldiers of General Haller's army, an army raised 
in the United States and sent across the ocean at the expense of the American Government. 

'« 1919 



When the young Polish government asked the Peace Council to permit them, in their imperial- 
istic designs, to take possession of all Lithuania, the Peace Council refused, but failed to recognize the 
independence of Lithuania or fix a permanent frontier between Lithuania and Poland. 

A temporary line of demarcation, however, was set between the Lithuanian and Polish troops 
by the Peace Council, and the Poles were ordered to withdraw their forces beyond this line. 

The Poles did not obey the Peace Council, but on the contrary they sent more troops across the 
line of demarcation and took possession of more territory, towns and villages. 

Since the line of demarcation was fixed, it has been moved three times farther and farther into 
indisputably Lithuanian territory, on the representations of the Poles, thus cutting off from Lithu- 
ania thousands of square miles of territory. 

Each time the line was moved the Poles proceeded to take new positions in advance of the line, 
and are still doing so. 

Thus, as they dare not occupy Lithuania all at once, they are occupying it piece by piece. 

These acts of the Polish troops have been done under the direct orders, sanction and encour- 
agement of the Polish government at Warsaw. 

^. ^ 

We believe that the American People has the will and the American Government the power to 
act in this matter and that Poland respects and fears the voice of America and will give heed to any 
expressions of public opinion from this country. We believe, further, that certain practical measures 
are possible by this government which would at once cause Poland to cease her outrageous activities 
against Lithuania. 

We therefore solemnly appeal to the American Government and People to put a stop to the un- 
lawful aggressions of Poland against Lithuania and to prevent the useless, wasteful and wicked shed- 
ding of blood and destruction of property which accompanies these aggressions. 

In the name of the Lithuanian National Councils and of all American Lithuanians. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE LITHUANIAN NATIONAL COUNCILS. 

Matthias J. Vinikas, 

Chairman. 



Julius J. Bielskis, 

Acting Secretary. 



Washington, D. C, 

September 22, 1919. 



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